Zev Porat

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

THE GOP WILL NEVER REPLACE OBUMMERCARE

Obummercare cannot be replaced with anything that meets the goal of affordable healthcare for everyone because the premise of Obummercare is that healthcare is a birthright. As long as that premise is enshrined, there is no hope for a viable replacement for Obummercare. There is no hope for Obummercare to reach that goal either. There never was. For example, let us assume that Obama tried to make it possible for every adult to have a car at the expense of the rich and middle class, simply by stealing money from the rich and middle class and buying a car for every poor person. As a result, the price of cars went up drastically. This always happens when the government guarantees the purchase of anything. The Republicans do not like Obama's "Affordable Car Act" because: 1. There is not enough combined wealth from working people to give every adult American a car. 2. The price of cars is increasing for everyone because of the government mandate. 3. Those who work are mad because more and more money is being taken from them in the failed attempt to buy every adult a car. 4. More ills of this system exist, but you get the idea of where I am going.So, the GOP comes up with their own plan to provide every adult gets a car using the same premise that every person deserves a car as a birthright. How can that be done without all of the above happening? It can not. To replace the failed Affordable CAR Act with something that will work better, the premise has to change from: 1. Having a car is a birthright to having a car is not a birthright. 2. Having a car is the responsibility of others to provide, to having a car is each person's responsibility to provide for him or herself. Once those two changes are made, what you end up with is exactly what we have now; a free-market system for the buying and selling of cars where some people can afford a car and some people cannot. Some of those who can afford a car are generous enough to help those who cannot afford a car to do so, and some are not. Not everyone will own a car. Likewise with Obummercare. No matter what the Republican plan is, it will be nothing more or less than a rehash and repackaging of Obummercare.To replace the (un)Affordable Care Act (Obummercare) the premise has to change from: 1. Having medical insurance is a birthright to having medical coverage is NOT a birthright. 2, The premise that it is the responsibility of those who can afford medical insurance to pay for the medical insurance of those who cannot, to it is each person's responsibility to provide their own medical coverage. Once those two changes are made, what you end up with is exactly what we had before Obummercare. We had a free-market system for the buying and selling of medical insurance where some people can afford medical coverage and some people cannot. Some people, agencies, corporations, state/county/city governments, and hospitals will help those who cannot afford medical insurance to get medical assistance or insurance and some will not. However, not every person will have medical coverage. Once we are back to where we started before Obummercare, then we can work on improving the system. However, that will not happen soon because the Democrats and the majority of Republicans in Congress are too stupid (or unwilling) to understand anything in this article. Plus, if and when we get back to where we were before Obummercare, the solutions are too easy for most in Congress, and they are contrary to the greed of the pharmaceutical industry. Don't get me started on that! Let me put it this way -- If you leave the free-market system alone, it takes care of itself by producing the best possible result, over time. Nothing is perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal. Trying to make something perfect always leads to making it worse. Make it better and settle for that. It will never be perfect so accept that and go on about life. Everyone cannot have the best of everything all of the time. Life isn't fair. Deal with it!The bottom line is that we did not have affordable healthcare before Obummercare because profit not healthcare was the primary driving force of the free-market healthcare system. The free-market healthcare system will never work well as long as profit is the major goal, but it worked better than Obummercare. Profit is necessary, however, when profit is the only valued goal, success is impossible. The driving force of the free-market system is not profit. The driving force is problem solving for consumers. People who solve problems get paid money. The bigger the problem solved, in most cases, the larger the profit. When the primary goal is getting paid a lot of money rather than problem solving, failure is unavoidable. The first step in solving the excessive cost of healthcare, once we get back to the free-market system, is to make the service of providing health the primary goal. Once that is done, the rest is reasonably easy as long as there is a clear understanding that health insurance is not a birthright but a benefit. Ah, but all of that for another time. The only thing good about Obummercare is that it will, eventually, bankrupt the healthcare system and force America back to the free-market system. That is, unless Congress continues to fund more and more Obummercare with our tax dollars. In that case, America goes bankrupt and Obama's second greatest dream comes true. (His greatest dream is to be the King of the World.) Obama knows that nations in financial ruin are easier for Muslim warriors to take over and control.